WEYBURN — A Â鶹´«Ã½AV East Cornerstone Public School Division team of nine took to the western wall of the division’s central office conference room June 17 to explore and explain the numbers and multi-coloured graphs pinned there on display.
It is all part of the-data driven mandate Cornerstone has embraced to assist educators and administration in tracking the progress being made on educational fronts.
The team took to the floor of the conference room during the school board’s open general business meeting in the afternoon. They were there to discuss vital topics that are part of their purview such as student transitions from one sector to another, and learning assessments, tracked by the aforementioned data driven system. Presenters imparted knowledge on Indigenous education’s growth and also overall mental health and well-being status of their students.
The team members addressed each graphic example to explain how individual students and groups are referenced to enable more efficiency in delivery of educational knowledge and products.
The session began with an introduction by director of education Keith Keating, who explained the reasoning behind the wall walks and data gathering.
Up next were Nathan Johnson, superintendent of human resources, and Jacquelene Gibbs, co-ordinator of early learning. These two discussed student transitions with Johnson noting how the charts reflect where students are placing in regards to such things as attendance and school experiences, how they feel about how classes are going, and how they were different in some aspects from elementary classrooms to middle years classrooms to high school experiences and potential transitions to colleges, universities or other outlets.
Curriculum co-ordinator Michael Graham, who was part of a following duo of presenters, also contributed to the transition team’s references to follow-up classes and educational directions.
Gibbs focused on how youngsters prepare for a transition to the school classrooms, attendance and reading and comprehension levels that educators attempt to achieve in the child’s early learning experiences. She discussed supports available, as well as the evaluations made in skill developments and taking advantage of the early learning tools, and she referenced a comparison made over a five-year period.
Cathy Hiltz, superintendent of schools in the southern region of the sprawling school division and Cheryl Anderson, co-ordinator of student services, were next up and they talked about learning assessments.
Hilz made references to the assessments core, reading and comprehension scales and the support systems in place.
Anderson broke down statistics into grade groups, referenced the MathUp program and how teacher teams are deployed within certain environments.
Kevin Hengen, who has announced his retirement but is currently the superintendent for the eastern region, addressed the Indigenous educational outreaches along with Graham, who noted that due to the fact that some student population samples were small, the numbers and trends on the charts could be somewhat skewered, but overall there have been very positive results over the past few years, as evidenced by data collection. He noted more graphs were up, meaning more opportunities and ensuring that supports are in place.
Tracey Kiliwnik, co-ordinator of learning supports, was joined by Devon Dempsey, superintendent for the western region to wrap up the wall walk presentation. Kiliwnik spoke of appropriate interventions and seasonal checkpoints, as well as advocacy processes to ensure students feel safe in the schools, and noted how this academic year’s evaluations were comparable to the previous year’s findings.
Dempsey spoke of student relations, mental health needs such as a student’s need for a sense of belonging, and positive relationships within the school, which she noted were usually very strong in elementary grades and then an anticipated small decline in the middle years, as anxiety levels might increase as the young students mature into the system, but are still able to access a strong support system.
Depression levels, attendance levels, and time and energy expended were also brought to the forefront by the duo with Dempsey citing the division’s vision statement for success for every student in every school.
Keating provided concluding remarks to emphasize the need for the data and how the system, schools and individual teachers deliver additional positive educational experiences for the division’s students.
